British publisher of music-related books
Omnibus Press
is a publisher of music-related books.
[1]
It publishes around 30
[2]
new titles a year to add to a backlist of over 300 titles currently in print.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Omnibus Press was launched in 1972 as a general non-fiction publisher to complement the sheet music published and distributed by its parent company
Music Sales Group
.
[4]
Music Sales had launched a separate company called Book Sales Ltd and the earliest Book Sales catalogue, issued in the early 70s, included compilations of underground comic strips, art and photography titles and one of the earliest books on the then newly discovered art of video.
After former
Melody Maker
music journalist
Chris Charlesworth
joined as Omnibus editor in 1983,
[5]
it was decided to concentrate exclusively on music books, and among its earliest acquisitions was
Rock Family Trees
by music archivist
Pete Frame
which remains in print and have been the basis of two
BBC TV
series. Over the succeeding decades Omnibus has published many biographies on most of rock musicians. These include
Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance
by
Johnny Rogan
,
Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon
by
Tony Fletcher
,
Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story
by
Victor Bockris
and
Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley
by Timothy White.
Among the rock and pop writers whose work has been published by Omnibus over the years are
Richard Williams
,
Chris Welch
, Peter Dogget, Patrick Humphries, David Sinclair and
Everett True
(UK) and
Dave Marsh
,
Paul Williams
,
Nelson George
,
Jerry Hopkins
,
David Ritz
and
Danny Sugerman
(US).
Wise Music Group has published
The Beatles
' printed
sheet music
since the company's inception, and this association is reflected in the many Beatles-related books that Omnibus has published. These include
The Beatles: A Diary
by
Barry Miles
, a Beatles insider from the early days,
With The Beatles: The Historic Photos of
Dezo Hoffman
, and
The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles
by Dominic Pedlar, an analytical study of their music. In 2007, Omnibus published
Colin Larkin
's
Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise Edition)
. At 1,600 pages, this is the abridged version of Larkin's 10-volume encyclopedia, a biographical listing of rock, pop and jazz artists.
[6]
In 2006, Music Sales acquired Sanctuary Books which added a significant number of additional music books to the Omnibus list, as well as a number of sports, travel and novelty & gift books.
[
citation needed
]
In February 2020, parent company Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group.
[7]
References
[
edit
]